First Lady Michelle Obama has done it again. With days left in the White House, she’s managed to make partisan comments that once again paint a woefully pessimistic view of our nation’s future.
In a parting interview with Oprah, she threw major shade at President-Elect Donald Trump and the supporters who elected him by comparing the incoming president unfavorably to her husband. She claims that Americans will now feel what it means to be hopeless compared to the hope that her husband ushered in.
FLOTUS says:
"We feel the difference now. See, now, we are feeling what not having hope feels like," she told Oprah Winfrey in an interview, a clip of which aired on CBS on Friday. "Hope is necessary. It's a necessary concept and Barack didn't just talk about hope because he thought it was just a nice slogan to get votes."
"He and I and so many believe that — what else do you have if you don't have hope," the first lady added. "What do you give your kids if you can't give them hope?"
She added:
“I feel Barack has been that for the nation in ways that people will come to appreciate. Having a grown-up in the White House who can say to you in times of crisis and turmoil, 'Hey, it's going to be okay. Let's remember the good things that we have,'" she said.
The election of Barack Obama was historic. We will not take anything away from the significance of the election of the first black President of the United States. However, Barack is not has his imperfections.
President-Elect Trump did not respond harshly but gave Michelle Obama the benefit of the doubt, saying her comments probably did not come out the way she intended. That’s mature on his part. When we consider her bruising comments about him during the campaign and –more famously– her controversial comments in 2008 that this was “the first time in my [her] adult [she] was proud of [her] country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback,” her track-record speaks for itself.
Many Americans were disappointed with the results of the election, the Obamas included. However, to go as far as to claim that parents no longer have hope to give to their children or to believe themselves is misplaced and partisan. Would Hillary Clinton have inspired more hope than Barack Obama? Does Donald Trump not inspire hope for those who have felt forgotten, especially over the past eight years?
Kids can still dream about being president one day and Americans have proven that they will elect candidates who they think can change the direction of our nation whether they are businessmen or law school professors with a short resume of public experience.
I’m sorry Michelle, but Barack Obama is not the author of hope and when he leaves office, our world won’t be hopeless.